The Poisoned Book
by The New Weasley
Summary: Muggleborns are being injured, and no one can stop it. Gred and Forge are going to try anyway. What's the worst that can happen?
1. Chapter 1

It had been going on for about a week now. Muggleborns were being struck down left, right and centre, and no one knew why. Fred and George were trying to get on with their Potions essays, but were being distracted by a group of sobbing girls huddled in the corner of the Gryffindor common room. At the moment, this wasn't uncommon, given that 6 muggleborn girls had already been found bleeding out in various corridors across the school. Anyway, it was Lavender Brown and her group of shrieking cronies, and they were always hysterical about something.

"Bloody hell," said Fred, looking up momentarily to glare at the throng. "I wish they'd shut up." At this moment, Hermione Granger walked into the common room, with a stack of books in her arms. "Hey, 'Mione. Do you know what's up with them? None of them are muggleborn. They shouldn't have anything to worry about." said Fred, gesturing to the group. "Oh. Well. Didn't you hear?" replied Hermione. Fred and George shook their heads. "Parvati Patil was found this morning." The twins exchanged confused looks. "But she's a half-blood." said George, furrowing his brow. "I know." replied Hermione. "And that means that everyone is in danger. Well, all the girls, that is." And with that, she strode off towards her dorm, presumably to find somewhere quiet to study.

Fred and George turned to look at each other. "If all the girls are in danger, then what's stopping whatever it is attacking Ginny, or Katie, or 'Lina, or…" "Fred, calm down. They've not been attacked yet, and that means there's a chance for us to try and stop whatever it is" said George, looking into his brothers panicked eyes. "And we're going to stop it."


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, which, happily for them, was a Saturday, they hurried to the library immediately after breakfast. Fred had wanted to go straight away, but George had made him sit down and eat a proper meal first. As they were walking down one of the many corridors, they spotted Ron, who was looking particularly pale.

"Alright, Ronniekins?" asked Fred, as they slowed to a halt next to him. Ron glared at Fred for a second, as he always did when he heard his much-hated pet name. "'Mione's in the infirmary. I found her this morning. She was just outside the library, and she was bleeding, and there was so much blood, and I couldn't stop it, and I couldn't wake her up, and I couldn't…" George put his hand on Ron's shoulder. He'd noticed that Ron had started to ramble, and that he was now even paler than he had been before, sure signs of shock. "Ron, you've got to sit down, alright?" And with that, he gently pushed Ron to the ground, so he was leaning against the wall.

It wasn't often that the Weasley twins took anything seriously, but they would do anything to help their family, and right now, George was concentrating on helping Ron. "If she's in the infirmary, I'm sure she'll be fine. Madame Pomfrey'll be able to fix her up in no time." Ron shook his head. "They can't stop the bleeding. They don't know why, or what caused it, but they can't stop it. They can't stop it, and she's going to die." Tears were glimmering in Ron's eyes, which startled Fred, as Ron generally showed about as much of an emotional range as a teaspoon, as Hermione had put it.

"We're gonna find the cure." said Fred gently, "We're gonna stop whatever's doing this. Hermione's not going to die." Ron wiped his nose with the back of his hand as he got up off the floor. "Lovely", remarked Fred, unable to keep the comment bottled up, and expecting Ron to take a swing at him. However, Ron merely sniffed at him as he started to shuffle his way down the corridor, presumably back to the infirmary. George and Fred watched him go. "Poor sod," said Fred, and with that, they turned, and continued to make their way to the library, discussing the recent news as they went.


	3. Chapter 3

Fred and George walked through the doors to the library with slight trepidation. They had only started to come here recently, and they still felt like outsiders amongst all the quiet bookworms. Today though, there were no other people in the library, apart from the librarian, who gave them a stern look as they entered. "Do you actually know what we're looking for?" asked Fred. "Well," whispered George "I figured that there must be some sort of poison involved, or the wounds would heal. But, from what Ron told us, the wounds keep bleeding. So I thought we should look for a book on, well, poison." "Sounds like a plan. So… do you know where we're supposed to look?" George looked up at the towering stacks of dusty books. "Nope." "Well, you go that way, and I'll go this way." Fred set off determinedly down a narrow passageway, and George stared at his brothers back for a moment before setting off in the opposite direction.

After a few minutes, George tapped his brother on the shoulder, and smirked when he jumped slightly. "I've found the section on potions. Come on." He wove his way through the bookshelves, with Fred following closely behind, until they were near the back of the library. "How did you get this far back? I only managed to get halfway through my half." said Fred. "I guess I got the brains and the looks," sniggered George "Oh, yeah, and the Quidditch skills." George stopped in front of a tall wooden bookcase just as Fred reached out to punch him. "Ow!" exclaimed George, earning a "Sshhh!" from Madam Pince.

"Anyway, here we are," whispered George, rubbing his arm. "Why don't you start at that end. Just look for books that might have stuff on poison in them." "No way, I was going to look for books on pygmy puffs." Fred said, as he picked up a book that had been lying in front of him. It was quite old, and the spine was starting to fall apart. In large letters on the front, he read 'Moste Potente Poisons'. "Hey, this looks promising" he said, but his words fell on deaf ears, as George was already engrossed in 'Know Your Poisons'. Fred grinned at his brother's frown of concentration, and then turned back to the heavy book he had been holding, and opened it slowly.


	4. Chapter 4

George had been engrossed in the book he was holding. He and Fred were known to everyone in the school as jokesters, and that's all they were to most people. What only a few people knew was that George loved to read. He wasn't usually interested in lessons, but he loved the smell of old books, and he loved becoming engrossed in a good story. And Fred usually loved to watch him read, because he was so different than normal. Usually, he had a wide grin on his face, and his eyes were full of mischief and fun. When he read, however, his brow furrowed slightly as he concentrated, and when he was completely engrossed, he'd chew his bottom lip softly. However, this time, Fred wasn't watching him.

George jerked out of his book suddenly when he heard two heavy things hit the floor next to him. Specifically, a heavy old book, and a heavy older brother. George started to panic as he stared at his brother lying on the floor with his eyes closed, and in his panic that his brother was the next victim, he didn't register that there was no blood, and that his brother wasn't female. As he crouched down on the floor, eyes wide, Fred's arm suddenly twitched, causing George to fall backwards, hitting his head on the wooden chair he'd been sitting on. Fred slowly opened his eyes, registering his younger brother sitting on the floor next to him.

"Don't open that book. It's cursed." Fred said with a grin. George rubbed the back of his head and blew out a sigh of relief. "For God's sake, Fred, what happened?" "I dunno. I was just opening that book, and suddenly everything went fuzzy, and then, well, you know the rest." "Fred," said George, "What would you do if you were trying to kill people in a school?" "Well, George, I'd make sure that no one could find out how to stop me. I'd put some kind of protection on the book with the solution in it." "Exactly," said George, "So, Fred, I think you've found our book." "And you said I didn't get the brains." "You didn't," replied George, "You got the luck."


	5. Chapter 5

"We need to figure out how to open this book first of all." said George, as the twins made their way to the Gryffindor common room. "Well, as you said, you got the brains, so I'm going to leave that up to you." replied Fred with a grin, knowing full well that his twin would love to have the chance to figure out a cursed book. "Well, what are you going to do then?" asked George. "I'm going to do some investigating," said Fred, "You know, go and see the victims and ask around a bit." They'd reached the large portrait of the Fat Lady that blocked the entrance to the common room. The Fat Lady looked first at the twins, and then at the large book that George was holding. "I hope there's nothing in there about setting my portrait on fire. Again." she said. Fred just smirked as he said "Balderdash.", and the Fat Lady's portrait swung open.

"She's never going to let that go, is she?" muttered Fred as they entered the common room. The sobbing girls had thankfully relocated themselves, and the only other person in there was a small first year boy, who was scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment. The twins walked right across the large room and made their way quickly up the stairs to their dormitory, which was empty. It was a sunny day outside, so the twins assumed that most people were enjoying the warm weather. Fred looked wistfully out the window for a moment, before sitting down on his bed.

George was rummaging around in his trunk, looking for something, and growing steadily more frustrated when he couldn't find it. "Hey, Fred, give me your copy of 'The Standard Book of Spells', would you?" Fred wordlessly reached underneath his bed, and heaved out his heavy trunk. After a couple of minutes of rummaging, he managed to find it hidden under of pile of chocolate frog boxes, and handed it to George. George opened the book, and started scanning the page, immediately lost to the world around him. Fred watched him read for a moment, but when he saw George start to chew his lip, he knew that he might as well go and investigate, as he wasn't going to get much out of his brother now. With that, he stood and marched out the door, intent on reaching the infirmary before lunch.


	6. Chapter 6

Fred hurried along the corridor in an effort to reach the infirmary quickly, and as he rounded a corner, collided with Professor McGonagall, who was hurrying towards him. "Oh, Weasley, just who I was looking for. You heard the news then?" "No, Professor. What news?" he asked, as his stomach dropped right down to his feet. Professor McGonagall gave him a sympathetic look. "You'd better come with me." And with that, she turned on her heel and briskly walked back to the infirmary, Fred close on her heel.

Eventually, they walked through the large doors to the infirmary, and Fred couldn't help gasping. There were at least 10 girls lying in the beds either side of him, all of whom had various parts of their body obscured by bandages. In most cases, these bandages were covered in large spots of red where the blood had seeped through. Some were awake, but most were lying, still and pale, in their respective beds. They reached the end of one of the rows, and Fred gasped in horror at the red-haired inhabitant of the bed. Ginny was lying perfectly still, and her torso was completely obscured by fresh bandages. Fred would have thought she was dead if it weren't for the very slight movement of her chest as she breathed slowly in and out.

He collapsed into the chair standing next to her bed, and clutched at one of her hands, which was as cold as marble. He looked up at McGonagall, who now looked slightly blurry, as his eyes had filled with tears. "What. Happened?" McGonagall's eyes moved from Fred's pained face to Ginny's expressionless one. "We found her only 20 minutes ago. She was near the Quidditch grounds. I'm sorr-". But she didn't finish, because Fred had stood up and was currently racing through the infirmary doors.


	7. Chapter 7

Fred burst through the door to his and George's dormitory to find George lying on his bed, blinking slowly. As Fred marched over to his brother, George slowly sat up, rubbing his eyes. "I've tried this seven times, and nothing's worked yet. It's getting quite… Fred, what happened?" Fred was as pale as Ron had been earlier that day, and stood breathing heavily, fist clenched. "It's got Ginny" he said simply, before collapsing onto the bed beside Fred and holding his head in his hands. George was still staring at the spot where Fred had been standing a couple of seconds ago. "It's- What- How- Its-" George seemed to be having trouble processing the sudden news, so Fred sat up again, and stared at his hands. "It got Ginny. She's got bandages all over her stomach, and she's so pale, and she's so cold."

Fred took a deep breath. He knew that he needed to calm down, because they wouldn't be able to stop whatever it was if they were panicking. But it was so hard. Fred looked around at his brother, and saw that he was still staring at the same place. This jolted his brain back into gear. If anything, he needed to stay calm for George, who looked like he was about to break down. Suddenly, the look in George's eyes changed from the lost panic that had been there before to a steely determination, and he reached behind him to grab the spellbook he'd been studying, opened it, and thrust his nose into it, eyes scanning the pages at twice the speed they had been before.

George snapped the book closed with a frustrated sigh, snapping Fred out of his reverie. He watched his younger brother stand up and march over to the door. He checked his watch quickly, then stood up too. "Good idea, Georgie. I forgot about lunch." "I'm not going for lunch. I'm going to the library, to find another book." "You've got to eat something." replied Fred. George just shook his head, and walked out of the dormitory. Fred paused for a moment before following his brother. Fred knew that in his current state, George probably wasn't going to listen to him, so when George turned off to go to the library, Fred carried on to the Great Hall alone.

Come bedtime, and George still hadn't eaten anything. He hadn't even left the Gryffindor Tower since he went to the library. When Fred returned to the dormitory after dinner, George was lying on the ground, hand lying limply on top of the cursed book. Fred gasped and ran to his twin, but as he reached out to rest his hand on George's shoulder, he felt him stir, and George's eyes slowly fluttered open. "Nothing's worked yet." he said plainly, and slowly got himself up off the floor. The twins changed into their pyjamas, and got into bed, but George drew the curtains around his bed closed. Fred suspected that this was because George was going to carry on reading, and his suspicions were confirmed when he heard his brother mutter "Lumos" from behind the curtains. Fred shook his head and rolled over, hoping that his twin wouldn't stay up for too long.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day, George didn't leave the tower at all, except to get a new book from the library, so Fred spent most of his day there too, helping his brother with research. He couldn't convince George to leave for meals, and he knew that his brother was desperate to find a way to open the book, but he also knew that George couldn't go on without food for long. He took comfort in the fact that he had managed to force George to eat a sandwich at dinner, but that was all. Once again, when night came, George drew his curtains, and stayed awake the entire night.

The next day was Monday, so with all the lessons, it was much easier for George to skip meals. In any moment between classes, George would frantically scan the pages for anything that could give him a clue about how the book was cursed. But he found nothing. Dispirited, he snuck away from Fred after their final class. Fred watched him hurry off, and knowing that he wanted to be alone, didn't follow, and instead walked to the Great Hall with his fellow classmates for dinner. All throughout the meal he worried about George, and left early, making sure to bring with him a couple of chicken drumsticks. He trudged his way up to the Gryffindor Tower, and through the portrait hole, drumsticks in one hand, and entered the common room. He was about to continue up to the dormitory when he noticed a familiar tuft of red hair poking out from the side of an armchair that was facing the fire.

"Hey Georgie." he said, but there was no indication that George had heard him. Frowning, Fred walked around to the front of the chair, and was alarmed to see that George's eyes were closed, and that one arm was dangling off the side of the armchair. The other arm was resting on top of an open book that was lying on George's chest. One leg was thrown over the arm of the chair, and the other was curled up in the seat. He was just about to try and wake his brother up when he realised that George was softly snoring. Relieved, he went and got one of the blankets from his brother's bed, and laid it on top of the sleeping boy. He was glad the George was finally getting some rest, as he knew that he hadn't slept for the last couple of nights. He sat down in the armchair opposite his brother, and the soft breathing of his twin and the warmth of the fire soon meant that when the other Gryffindors returned to the common room after dinner, they quickly hushed each other and crept quietly upstairs, so as not to wake the sleeping twins.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning, Fred woke up before his brother and sat for a while, watching the gentle rise and fall of the boy's chest. This didn't last long though, as a group of second years came crashing down the stairs and startled George awake. He sat blinking, trying to get his bearings, and eventually registered that he was in the common room, and that his brother was sitting staring at him. "Come on," said Fred, "We're going to get breakfast." George started to protest, but Fred ignored him, and shoved him through the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall. Despite his earlier protests, George ate enough breakfast to fill up 20 men.

The boys then returned to the common room to collect their books for the first lesson. George managed to find his before Fred, and sat on his bed, watching his brother throw his belongings all over the room in order to find his textbook. He then noticed the cursed book lying on the floor by his feet, and stood up. "I wonder how old this book is," he thought "I love the smell of old books." So he picked up the book, raised it to his nose, and inhaled deeply. Suddenly, everything went fuzzy, and he was vaguely aware of dropping the book before his eyes rolled up into the back of his head, and everything went dark. Fred looked up sharply when he heard the book hit the floor, and seeing his brother's knees give way, he quickly caught hold of the slender boy, who went limp in his arms. He lowered George onto the floor, taking care not to smack his twin's lolling head onto the floor. He gently shook George's shoulders, and thankfully, his brother's eyes slowly flickered open, and focussed on his face, before widening in excitement. "I've been looking in all the wrong places, Fred," he exclaimed as he scrambled off the floor, "Don't you see? The book isn't cursed, it's poisoned! The reader inhales the poison when they open the book, and that's why I collapsed when I sniffed it!" He said excitedly, looking into his brother's bewildered face.

"Why were you sniffing the book?" his brother enquired with a snicker, but George didn't hear him, because he was already running out the door, shouting something about needing a new book.


	10. Chapter 10

"I've got it!" shouted George gleefully. "I've found the antidote for the poison on the book!" George punched the air before looking back at the list of ingredients, muttering to himself. "Graphorn horn… We've got that. Fire seeds… We can nick those off Snape…" George looked across at his smirking brother. "Looks like we're going to have to take a trip to Myrtle's bathroom, Freddie."

The twins sneaked down the long corridor to where the girls bathroom was, George carrying the equipment in a cauldron, and Fred keeping an eye out for other students or teachers. It was lunchtime, so there shouldn't be too many people roaming the corridors, but they had to be careful anyway. They reached the bathroom, and slid through the door. Ron had told them that no one ever went in here, and they knew that he and his friends had made potions in here before. They dumped their equipment, and the books, and left the bathroom again, locking the door from the outside with a quiet "Colloportus.". "Okay, so tonight, I'll come back here, and start on the potion, and you get Harry's invisibility cloak and nick the rest of the ingredients from Snape." said George. "Sounds like a plan." replied Fred. Little did they know that their plan had been overheard by someone who immediately vowed to interrupt their little 'potion party' in the worst way possible.


	11. Chapter 11

Fred and George hurried quietly along to the girls' bathroom later that night, under Harry's borrowed invisibility cloak. George whispered "Alohomora.", and they slid into the bathroom. "Alright," said Fred, "Start making the potion. I'll be back in a bit with the rest of the ingredients." With that, he threw the invisibility cloak back over his head. George saw the door swing open, and close again quietly. He set to work crushing the graphorn horn, and was soon completely absorbed in his task.

Meanwhile, George was busy picking the lock on Snape's store cupboard. He knew from experience that if he tried to use magic on it, it would start screaming at him extremely loudly, so he'd had to resort to muggle methods. He grinned to himself as he heard the click of the lock, and swung the door open. He scanned the numerous bottles and jars, looking for fire seeds and chizpurfle carapaces. He spotted the carapaces almost straight away, and grabbed the jar off the shelf, but it took him a while to find the fire seeds, because they were right at the top of the shelfs, in a particularly dark corner. "Accio fire seeds." he whispered, and caught the tiny bottle as it floated down from the shelf. He grinned again, and quickly exited the small room, relocking the door once he was outside.

He hurried back along the dark corridors, revelling in the excitement that sneaking around in the dark brought. He eventually reached the bathroom, and was slightly confused to find the door ajar. He paused for a moment before pushing the door open. The room was completely empty of life. The mortar in which George had been crushing the horn was tipped onto its side, and one of the glass vials was broken. On the floor there was a scrap of paper. Fred snatched it up, and read it quickly. All it said was "Finish this first." He recognised his brothers scrawled writing, and knew immediately what it meant. George wanted Fred to finish making the potion before coming for him. Fred really didn't want to, but deep down he knew that they had to get the book open.

Fred was deep in thought, a battle raging inside him, when he was startled out of his thoughts by a loud shriek. He whirled round just in time to see Moaning Myrtle settle herself on the windowsill. "Finally, he notices me." she said. "Have you been here the whole time?" Fred asked. "Yes. No one ever notices me." "Did you see what happened before?" "Well, of course. I don't see why you're asking me. You were there." she whinged. "That was my brother." said Fred, beginning to lose his patience. "Well, your brother was mashing some stuff up in a mortar, and these two big guys came into the bathroom, and your brother didn't have time to fight them off, 'cos he was writing something, and they hit him over the head with a bat or something, and took him out the room." "Did you see who it was?" "No, they shouted at me, so I left." she huffed, and flounced back into her toilet. Fred knew that he couldn't just go wandering around the castle trying to find Fred; he just didn't have enough time. So, he reluctantly sat down next to all the equipment, and began to look through the recipe.


	12. Chapter 12

George couldn't see anything. There was a blindfold covering his eyes, and his hands and legs were tied. He could still hear though. He was straining to listen to the muffled conversation that was going on somewhere to his left, but the voices were almost inaudible. He wondered if Fred was finishing the potion like he'd asked, or whether he was looking for him. The tiny selfish part of him was secretly hoping that Fred was looking for him, but most of him hoped that he was helping everyone else. Suddenly, his blindfold was pulled roughly off, and he winced when the sudden movement made his head pound.

He blinked slowly, trying to clear some of the blood out of his left eye. He looked down to find that his was lying on a stone table, in a large, gloomy room. Suddenly, movement to his right caught his eye, and he turned to face it. His eyes grew wide as he saw what 'it' was. He was currently looking straight at Draco Malfoy, who was glaring back at him, and holding his wand out in front of him. Draco turned around, and walked towards a wooden table near the wall, on which sat a small vial of light purple liquid. Draco carefully picked the vial up, and brought it back towards George, who was watching him curiously. He wasn't really scared, as everyone knew that Malfoy's bark was worse than his bite, but he felt confused as to what Draco's plan was.

His question was soon answered. "Sit up and be quiet, you filthy blood traitor. You've been getting too involved in business that isn't yours, and now, you're going to pay the price," said Draco, holding up the vial. "You're going to drink this, and-" "What is it?" asked George. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that you're going to drink it, and-" "Well, what if I don't want to drink it?" asked George, smirking slightly at the look of outrage on Draco's face, who was clearly not happy at being interrupted twice. "You're going to drink it, or I'll get my father to lock yours in Azkaban." Now it was Draco's turn to smirk. George glared at him. "Always such a daddy's boy, weren't you, Draco?" he said, as Draco pushed the small vial into his hands. "And don't even think about smashing it, Weaselby." he snarled.


	13. Chapter 13 (George's POV)

George took a deep breath, and raised the vial up to eye level. It was awkward to hold with his hands tied together, but he knew that he wouldn't convince Draco to untie him. He quickly glanced over at Draco, who was standing with his arms crossed, watching him. He didn't know what this potion would do to him, but he did know that it wouldn't be good, and he was scared. He lowered the vial to his mouth, and felt the edge of the glass, cold against his lips. He slowly tipped the vial back, and was momentarily aware of a bitter taste in his mouth, before he was gripped by cold and his vision went totally dark. The last thing he heard was the smash of the vial against the stone table, and then there was nothing.


	14. Chapter 13 (Draco's POV)

Draco crossed his arms as George lifted the vial up to see it better. He wished that he'd hurry up, because guilt was starting to build up inside him, and he didn't want any second thoughts. He had to make sure that no one interfered with his plans. It wasn't that he particularly cared what happened to the boy, it was just that it was such a waste getting rid of purebloods, even if they were blood traitors. He saw George's eyes flicker over to him for a second, before going back to the vial. He watched as George slowly brought the vial to his lips, before tipping it back.

He felt a spark of excitement inside him, after all, this was the fun part. He watched the ginger boy blink once sluggishly, before his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell back onto the stone table, the glass dropping from his limp hands. Draco quickly approached the table, stepping carefully over the broken glass, and put two fingers on the side of George's neck. George was cold, and his pulse was already almost too weak to feel. Draco drew his hand back, and marched over to the door of the dungeon. He strode through the door, confident that George was going to present no threat now, and that Goyle was going to find the other twin, and take care of him


	15. Chapter 14

Fred had just finished spraying the book with the antidote when he heard a faint scuffle from outside the bathroom door. Without hesitation, he quietly sped behind the door, so that when whoever it was came in, he would be able to see them, but they wouldn't see him. The door slowly opened, and a large form came plodding through the doorway. Goyle. Obviously confused about the absence of any people, Goyle scratched his head and started to turn back towards the door, when Fred leapt towards the large boy, pushing him backwards until he hit a wall. Fred was much smaller and lighter, but he had the element of surprise on his side, and was fuelled by anger. He shoved his lower arm into Goyle's throat, pinning him to a wall, and pointed his wand threateningly.

"Where's my brother?" he hissed. Goyle just sneered, so he pushed harder. "Even an idiot like you can understand that question. Don't make me repeat it." Goyle continued to sneer, though less confidently now. "Why should I tell you? He's so far below the school, you'll never find him." Goyle crowed. Fred inwardly cheered at the boy's idiocy, and quickly brought a knee up to meet Goyle's protruding stomach. Goyle groaned and crumpled to the ground, and Fred sprinted across the bathroom. As he reached the door, he heard Goyle croak "It doesn't matter. You're probably too late anyway."

Fred ran down the stairs to the dungeons faster than he'd even run before. Goyle's ominous warning echoed in his head, and he hurdled the stairs four at a time. He screeched to a stop when he came to the main dungeon door, and roughly pushed it open. He quickly looked around, but could see nowhere that someone could hide a George. He cursed silently, when a small wooden door in the corner caught his eye. He rushed towards it, and yanked at the handle, but it was locked. "Alohomora!" he hissed, and pulled again but the door only bent a little. Fuelled by panic and desperation, he kicked the door hard, and one of the boards came loose. He pulled away more of the boards until there was a big enough hole for him to squeeze through. He hurried down the stone steps two at a time, and shouted "George?"


	16. Chapter 15

Fred stopped suddenly when he found himself at the bottom of the staircase, and in a large dungeon. He looked around quickly before his eyes came to rest on a long stone table, lying on which was his brother. He dashed over to the side of the table, and grabbed his brother's face in his hands. He ran his eyes up and down George's limp body. His feet and hands were bound by coarse rope, which had left red, raw marks on his wrists and ankles. Fred found himself staring at these marks, because he couldn't bear to look at his brother's face. George's head was tilted slightly away from Fred, his head was bleeding slowly, his eyes were closed and his mouth hung open slightly, but it didn't seem like there was any breath coming from it.

Fred fell to his knees at the side of the table, ignoring the broken glass piercing his knees, and buried his face in George's shirt. His body was racked with sobs, while George's was still. "My little brother", he whispered, and turned his head so that he was looking at George's slack face. His ear was pressed against George's chest, and Fred suddenly realised that if he held his own breath, he could hear the faint fluttering of George's heart. He quickly stood, knowing that he had to get George to the infirmary as soon as he could.

He used his wand to break the bonds holding George, and picked his brother up, taking note of how cold the unconscious boy was, and walked as quickly as possible back up the stairs, blasting the door to pieces with his wand. He wanted to run, but didn't want to jostle George too much for fear of killing him. He stumbled once, almost dropping his brother, but caught himself and managed to make it to the infirmary without further incident.


	17. Chapter 16

Madame Pomfrey was tending to one of the girls when the doors to the infirmary burst open. She turned towards them quickly, and was shocked to see Fred standing in the doorway, holding onto George for dear life. She swept over to the two boys, a stretcher floating behind her. She gasped as Fred carefully lowered his brother onto it. She held her hand under his nose, and, feeling no breath on her hand, quickly hooked him up to a small tank of oxygen. She then took his pulse, and started to become steadily more worried, as she could barely feel it. She also was not happy with how cold he was. She turned to Fred, who was standing next to her, suddenly feeling very tired. She took note of the bags under his eyes, but, deciding that he wasn't her main concern, asked him to go and get Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall. She then turned her attention back to the boy lying on the bed.

It only took 10 minutes for Fred to return with the professors. McGonagall gasped when she saw George. He was so still. He almost looked like he was… Minerva shook herself. She knew that Madame Pomfrey wouldn't be tending him if he were dead. She was just shocked. He was usually such a mischievous and not-so-quiet boy that it unnerved her to see him like this. "What happened?" she enquired shrilly. Fred sighed and looked up at her and Professor Dumbledore with weary eyes, and began his tale. When he reached the end, and had told them about the book, Professor McGonagall went to find it.

When she had left, Dumbledore took a seat at the end of the bed, and asked Madame Pomfrey, "What's happened to him?" gesturing to George. Madame Pomfrey sighed, and with a sideways glance at Fred, said "He's been given the Draught of Living Death. Quite a strong dose too." Fred looked down at his brother. "He'll be fine though, won't he?" "I hope so, but I can't be certain that he'll wake up again." Fred's eyes filled with tears, and he took hold of one of his brother's hands. George's fingers curled slightly, but didn't return the squeeze.


	18. Chapter 17

It had been a long, lonely week, which Fred had spent almost exclusively in the infirmary, watching his unconscious brother with dull eyes. George hadn't moved a centimetre the entire time he'd been there, and his freckles still stood out harshly against his pale skin. Fred let out a small sob, and buried his head in his knees, which were curled up to his chest.

"What're you crying about, Freddie?" Fred's head snapped up at the sound of a voice identical to his own. George was looking blearily up at him through heavy-lidded eyes, which were rimmed with dark circles. Fred gasped, and jumped out of his chair and straight into the bed next to George, ignoring his brother's low groan of pain. He clasped his younger brother to him, determined not to let go until he was certain George wasn't going anywhere. Or at least until he felt George pathetically tapping at his arm. "Can't… Breathe…" he gasped, and Fred loosened his grip ever so slightly.

The two lay together for what seemed like an age, Fred running his fingers through George's messy hair, and allowing himself to be comforted by his brother's wheezy breath and the warmth of his body curled up half on top of his own. He shifted slightly to wake up a leg that had fallen asleep, smiling softly to himself as George grunted in protest. He was filled with a sense of peace, so different to the fear that had been gripping him ever since he realised George was missing. "This is gonna be a bit sappy, Georgie, but I'm glad you're ok."

When he received no reply, he frowned slightly, glanced down at his brother and couldn't help but smile. George's head was resting on Fred's chest, one hand curled around Fred's shirt. George's eyes were closed, and though he was still wheezing slightly, his breath was the deep, even breath of sleep. So, safe in the knowledge that his brother wasn't going anywhere, Fred closed his eyes and allowed himself to pulled into unconsciousness. Even Madame Pomfrey had to smile.


End file.
